It is well known in the surgical arts to place surgical drapes over virtually all of the portions of a patient's body except for that upon which surgery is to be performed. Such drapes reduce that chance that bacteria and viruses from the rest of the patient's body will contaminate the portion being operated on, either directly, by contact with the medical personnel performing or assisting the operation, or movement in the air. Such drapes also have other purposes, such as keeping blood from covering the patients body, providing a visual barrier to the patient, so he or she does not see the operation, and providing special surfaces for absorbing blood and placing tools.
As is indicated in FIG. 1, when surgery is performed on a patient's upper extremity, such as surgery upon a hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, or upper arm, it is common to lie the patient 10 upon an operating room, or OR, table 12 and to place next to the OR table, adjacent the arm 14 to be operated on, a smaller table 16, called a hand table. The patient's arm is then stuck out roughly perpendicularly to its body so as to rest on this hand table. The surgeons then normally stand or sit next to the sides 18 or 20 of the hand table to perform the operation on the upper extremity.
Traditionally in the prior art, when such surgery has been performed, a flat, rectangular, one piece drape, with an arm hole in it, is placed over the patient's body, the OR table, and the hand table. The arm is placed through the arm hole, so that part of it can lie on top of the drape on the hand table. Unfortunately, such traditional prior art drapes were not large enough to cover both the entire top of the hand table and the entire top of the OR table. As a result, an extra drape would have to be clipped to the drape containing the arm hole, so as to cover the patient's lower legs and feet. As a result, the sterile barrier formed by such a drape was less than optimal. For example, if the clips holding the two drapes together came undone, a portion of the patient's body could become exposed. In addition, the use of one flat drape to cover both the OR table and the hand table resulted in an excess of fabric hanging at the sides of the hand table near where it meets the OR table.